Wales tend to reserve their worst for South Africa, with one victory in 22 meetings and a try count of 80-26 against, but this afternoon's encounter between the sides is about more than the men in red looking to put the record book straight. The game has wider implications, as Wales will provide the bulk of the Lions' management team in South Africa next summer.

The home side suffered a blow yesterday when the inside-centre Gavin Henson succumbed to a long-standing achilles problem. Tom Shanklin comes in at outside-centre and James Roberts switches to No12. Wales will lose nothing in terms of power but they will miss Henson's distribution as well as his tactical kicking.

"We left the decision to Gavin and he told us he was not ready," said the Wales attack coach, Rob Howley, who at 3pm announced that Henson would play, only to issue a retraction 20 minutes later. "He aggravated the problem last Sunday and the six-day turnaround was not long enough."

Wales are the Six Nations champions and South Africa won the World Cup last year but the Springboks finished bottom of the Tri-Nations, losing to Australia and New Zealand at home (although they beat the All Blacks in Dunedin), and Wales followed up their grand slam by losing Tests in Bloemfontein and Pretoria.

South Africa's head coach, Peter de Villiers, only too aware that his predecessors struggled to hold on to the position even in times of success - winning the 2007 World Cup was not enough to earn Jake White a contract extension - has brought his strongest squad to Europe.

His pack today averages more than 43 caps a man and Bakkies Botha, the Blue Bulls lock, returns after missing the conclusion of the Tri-Nations with a knee injury. He is promising Wales a confrontational afternoon.

"I do not know how long I will last but as long as I am on the field Wales will feel my presence," he said. Botha will be packing down behind John Smit, the hooker and captain who has been shifted to tighthead prop, a position in which he started his career but which he has hardly played this decade. "As long as he keeps his back straight, he will have the rest of our weight behind him," said Botha.

South Africa's forwards coach, Gary Gold, believes the shift has given Smit a new lease of life but the Wales and Lions loose-head, Gethin Jenkins, will also feel a spring in his sprigs. He thought the proposed move was a wind-up the day before South Africa announced their side and the scrum, which has gained a new importance under the experimental law variations, is an area Wales will target. Henson's withdrawal will make playing for position all the more important.

It is Wales's first match under the ELVs but they anticipated them during the last Six Nations by adopting a kicking strategy which has now become de rigueur, booting long, keeping the ball in play and chasing hard. They wore down opponents by playing attritional, in-your-face rugby and exploiting superior fitness in the final quarter of matches, when they rarely conceded but often scored.

Doing that in a Six Nations which saw France experimenting and England getting bogged down by the past was one thing but South Africa, as they showed against Wales in the summer, have the capacity to absorb pressure and score in spurts. Despite the presence of Shane Williams and Bryan Habana on the wings, it is likely to be an afternoon higher on ferocity than velocity. It will be a foretaste of next summer and it is Wales who have to take the step up.